[Voters headed to the polls Tuesday to fill an open city council seat with one result certain — the nation's 10th largest city would soon have its first Vietnamese-American councilmember. School board member Madison Nguyen, 30, and attorney Linda Nguyen, 28, both Democrats, were in a runoff election that experts said shows the growing political clout of Vietnamese-Americans, an immigrant group that began arriving as political refugees three decades ago.] This is a new force in local, state and national politics, ... This is a new voting block. As they gain leadership positions, they'll increase in power. |
A lot of money is going to come in from around the state and around the country because it's a key seat. |
I think it's out of hand. Just the sheer volume of initiatives and the confusing campaigns have subverted the original intent. We should be able to vote on fairly significant things and be able to figure out what we're voting on without three hours of study. |
If he chooses to help Maldonado, that could make a difference. |
It would be another blow for him, because right now everybody's wondering where his campaign is. |
The Chamber has gotten more sophisticated with its endorsements. It got tired of losing. |
The question is, can he persuade others, particularly Republicans, that this is a good idea? |
There's a certain irony in the mayor's position. |
They screwed it up right from the start. The big mistake he made was early on, when he didn't follow through with specific initiatives on the reform issues that he talked about in the State of the State speech. |
This is a new force in local, state and national politics. This is a new voting block. As they gain leadership positions, they'll increase in power. |
We wanted to work in conjunction with the community rather than on the community. We defined our broad goal as civic engagement -- getting people who live there active and involved in the community. |